Posted by azdrugrehabctr on September 21, 2016 under Addiction Trends, Opiate Abuse | 
A picture of a man and a woman passed out from heroin with a 4-year-old boy in the back seat has gone viral. The picture was released after police pulled over a car that was driving erratically. Officers were able to observe that the driver had slurred speech and pin point pupils. They then noticed the child in the back seat, behind the woman who was passed out. One of the officers snapped the picture, and the police chief made the decision to release it on the city’s Facebook page.
“We are well aware that some may be offended by these images and for that we are truly sorry, but it is time that the non drug using public sees what we are now dealing with on a daily basis,” the city said in their Facebook post.
“The poison known as heroin has taken a strong grip on many communities not just ours. The difference is we are willing to fight this problem until it’s gone and if that means we offend a few people along the way we are prepared to deal with that.”
East Liverpool, Ohio is just one town in the state that is struggling with a massive opioid epidemic. Tens of thousands of people have died in the past year from drug overdoses. Had the police and emergency responders not been able to administer naloxone in time, this couple would likely have died as well.
As for the 4 yr-old boy in the back seat, he has been transported safely to another state to be in the care of other family members. And while some critics of the decision to release the picture of the addicts out of their concern, the image of the young child having to witness the whole scene is a stark reminder that addiction affects everyone involved, not just the addicts themselves.
If you or a loved one is in need of help for a substance abuse problem, contact us today.
Posted by azdrugrehabctr on September 16, 2016 under Addiction Trends, AZ Drug Rehab News, Synthetic Drugs |
When methamphetamine use began to take over the country it took a while for government agencies to implement restrictions on the chemicals needed to manufacture the dangerous drug. But, eventually, pharmacies throughout the country began requiring ID to purchase Sudafed, an important ingredient in making meth. Certain cleaning supplies, also part of the recipe, were also placed behind locked cabinets, deterring addicts from purchasing large quantities.
So, methamphetamine stopped being produced in large batches in the United States. But in order to satisfy the demands of the addicts, Mexican drug cartels began funding businesses in Mexico. These businesses started to manufacture and smuggle in all the ingredients needed to make methamphetamine. With cooperation from the Mexican government, officials were able to shut most of these facilities down. The coca plant is another item that requires chemical processing in order to turn it into a drug – cocaine. These restrictions by U.S. and Mexican officials have also impacted cocaine manufacturers.
Now that these restrictions have been in place for some times it can be determined how effective they were at curbing the methamphetamine problem in the United States. According to researchers at the University of Arizona, these restrictions helped lower the number of people addicted to cocaine and methamphetamine. Data shows a 35% decrease in methamphetamine use over the last year. Cocaine abuse has also dropped significantly, by 32%.
“Strategies directed toward individual users – information campaigns and direct medical care, for example – have not yet full addressed the public health problem of cocaine and methamphetamine misuse. Additional approaches are needed. Chemical controls are relatively inexpensive. And there’s room to improve them through better international cooperation,” explained Dr. James Cunninhgam, a social epidemiologist at the University of Arizona’s College of Medicine.
When officials can cut off, or minimize the supply of illicit drugs it allows addicts to get the help they desperately need. When the drugs are harder to obtain it makes it easier for family and loved ones to encourage treatment. Treatment often becomes easier to accept when it is more difficult to obtain the drugs.
Posted by azdrugrehabctr on September 13, 2016 under Addiction Trends, AZ Drug Rehab News |
A new study shows that the most common time for cocaine addicts to be discharged from treatment is also the most probable time period for them to relapse. According to researchers, cocaine addicts are most likely to relapse between one and six months after abstinence. This is especially interesting because most treatment programs discharge patients one and three months after admittance.
“Results of this study are alarming in that they suggest that many people struggling with drug addiction are being released from treatment programs at the time they need the most support. Our results could help guide the implementation of alternative, individually tailored and optimally timed intervention, prevention, and treatment strategies,” explained Rita Goldstein, researcher at Icahn School of Medicine in Mt. Sinai in New York.
Researchers investigated 76 adults who were addicted to cocaine. These adults had all been abstinent for varying amounts of time. Some were cocaine-free for only two days. Some participants were sober from cocaine for one week, others one month, or six months and a few were sober for a year. Using EEG images, taken while the subjects were viewing pictures, some of which had to do with cocaine, researchers were able to better understand how the brains were working during these time intervals. Prior to, and after, the EEG, participants were required to fill out questionnaires and complete a monitoring test to determine levels of craving. The results showed that major cocaine cravings started to increase after 2 days to one week of abstinence. The cravings peaked between one to six months of cocaine sobriety.
Researchers are hopeful that this information will be used to educate families and shape treatment program curriculum. One reason for the popularity of a one to three-month program is that this has become the norm in treatment. Addicts are notorious for being difficult to agree to treatment, and it is especially difficult to get them to commit to longer time periods of treatment. Oftentimes families and loved ones make compromises on the length of the program to ensure that their loved one will check in. However, it is likely that most families are unaware that evidence is pointing to longer programs being more effective.
